


Square

by nausicaa_of_phaeacia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post Jiaying, Post-Season/Series 02, Prompt Fic, also featuring: the Playground's kitchen, skoulsonfest2k15redux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 03:36:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4375676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nausicaa_of_phaeacia/pseuds/nausicaa_of_phaeacia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six scenes with Coulson and Skye and missing things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Square

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zauberer_sirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/gifts), [hamsterfactor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamsterfactor/gifts).



> I wrote this for the skoulsonfest redux (day 1). I had fun. :)
> 
> Prompt:  
> [GHOST PAIN]
> 
> For zauberer_sirin and hamsterfactor for always organizing such lovely fic events. :) Thank you.

01\.   
Nobody at the Playground really dares to address the fact that Coulson’s missing a hand, except maybe May, and she always does it _before_ breakfast coffee, so Skye’s not sure that counts as an actual mentioning of the missing limb. She just notices Coulson’s started spending Thursday nights with Mack, slouching around a green-felted card table, playing Canasta or Bridge or _whatever the game is called_ that Phileas Fogg’s life is dedicated to. Those nights, she always makes a point to wear extra soft woolen socks creeping out of her bunk to get a glass of milk. Coulson always makes a point to remain hunched over his cards, pretending to adjust them as they’re put up against a huge dictionary so he doesn’t have to hold them. And Mack makes a point to _stare at the bookshelf_. Or maybe he just tries to decipher the titles from where he’s sitting. Anyways, those card nights always make her smile.

02.  
She keeps driving him around in Lola. He always makes sure nobody else gets to sit behind the wheel. She wonders if she’s _that_ good a driver (after all, she’s never steered anything besides a van, a rowboat or a Vespa before) or if he just likes having her around without having to make up a pretext. It includes driving him to meetings, S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0 scouting trips, the tailor (up to this point, she’s always been wondering how he gets every single one of those suits to fit him so well) and the ice-cream parlour (that’s where they always go after successfully completing a two-man mission). Since Hunter’s remark that ice-cream is pretty much the only thing you can enjoy while using just one hand, Skye always makes an extra effort to not just enjoy it, but to _look like_ she’s _massively_ enjoying it.

03.  
It’s his birthday, but they haven’t had a moment to celebrate it. They’ve sacrificed the whole week to complete a mission that included identifying second-generation infiltrated HYDRA scientists at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s London lab _without_ blowing up the whole street block or the tube station beneath. The first chance they get to breathe, Skye pulls Coulson into a public bus. He doesn’t get an opportunity to ask where they’re even going, because she starts babbling about that one bar Steve recommended (and he keeps asking himself if Captain Rogers is among Skye’s objectively deemed possible love interests for the rest of the ride). Upon discovering it’s a place where you’re supposed to dance, he starts reading the menu out aloud in a desperate attempt to pretend he’s dying of hunger. She just unbuckles his sling and tells him one doesn’t need fingers to balance one’s lady during a Foxtrot.

04.  
There’s this one night when she’s going to get her glass of milk at four-thirty (after hacking the CIA’s database for a covert mission) and finds him leaning over the sink, applying ice cubes to his left arm, breathing heavily. Skye leaves her mug on the microwave to hug him awkwardly from behind. Coulson just sighs when she removes the ice cubes one by one. She manages to persuade him to watch a 1930s movie with her, then starts throwing popcorn at him after around half an hour. When they’ve stopped giggling stupidly (and run out of popcorn to throw), she just asks him, “It’s the … the memory that hurts most, right?” He remains silent for more than a moment, then replies, “No. I mean, I don’t really know. Looking for something without knowing what exactly to look for. Trying to replace something but only knowing what kind of space it’s supposed to take up.” She looks pensive, then asks playfully, “Square peg?” Coulson chuckles, “What else is new?”

05.  
A few months later, Hunter and Jemma bring an informant to the Playground, a high-level business guy who’s supposed to blow some HYDRA covers at Wall Street. Turns out the only thing he’s ever planned to blow up is the Playground, having left his wired tea mug on the interrogation room table for Jemma to take to the kitchen. Fitz mumbles something about organic explosives he could have hidden under the teabag. While everyone is busy cuddling Simmons and May’s trying to squeeze information out of the guy in Vault D, Skye grabs one of the two red plastic chairs that’s still in one piece to sit next to the damaged cupboard.   
“I’ve always liked these plastic chairs.”  
She doesn’t have to turn around, she knows it’s Coulson. It’s kind of weird to be found out like this, staring at the ticking clock that has its parts hanging out of it. He just grabs the other plastic chair, dusts it off a little and goes to sit next to her.  
It feels like hours until she speaks.  
“This feels so familiar.”  
He tries. “You mean – having the base destroyed again?”  
Skye giggles a little. “Yeah, that’s familiar too. No, I mean – I don’t know. It’s just that I – you know, I thought I’d be spending the rest of my S.H.I.E.L.D. life at this base. I thought – I don’t know.”  
“It’s just the kitchen.”  
She sounds almost annoyed. “Yeah, I know. But I kind of feel the way I felt after my first foster family kicked me out. I thought I’d found a place but it turned out it wasn’t going to remain the same.”  
Coulson sighs, touching his left upper arm. “It _does_ feel familiar.” She looks at him, puzzled. He grins. “ _Square peg._ ”   
Finally, she smiles. “Yeah. I know. At least we know what shape we’re looking for.”

06.  
The next time they’re undercover on a two-man mission, it includes staying a night in Saint Petersburg, at a 1960s Soviet hotel with heavy red carpets and curtains. Coulson’s Russian just _sucks_ , and they end up with only one key. It proves to be harder than she expected to convince him it’s fine – double beds offer some room, after all. After a few hours, she wakes up to Coulson sitting up straight, grabbing his upper arm. Skye’s not really awake, but somehow, she manages to make him lie down again, draping her arm over his belly. She remembers his breathing evening out a little as she falls back asleep, Coulson’s fingers touching her wrist.  
When he wakes up at dawn, he has to admit to himself he feels a little disappointed that she’s gone, even though he knows she’s off to exchange information with a Moscovian Inhuman in the outskirts. As he’s about to step into the shower, he notices the hotel room receipt, fastened to the bathroom door face-down. It says, 

_FOUND:_  
SQUARE.   
SEE YOU IN THE EVENING.   
x 

He’s still smiling as he’s picking out the best shirt he brought.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know if you liked it! :)


End file.
